A spanking good read

A DISABLED great-gran has cast aside the knitting needles and picked up a new hobby – penning erotic fiction. Eva Moffat – who turned 70 last week – may not seem like your average x-rated author, but the perky pensioner has amassed quite a following with her raunchy romps.

A DISABLED great-gran has cast aside the knitting needles and picked up a new hobby – penning erotic fiction.

Eva Moffat – who turned 70 last week – may not seem like your average x-rated author, but the perky pensioner has amassed quite a following with her raunchy romps.

Writing under the pseudonym Eleanor Powell, her saucy stories follow the adventures of a young lady called Merrilee.

And despite the racy nature of many of her tales, Eva – who you may recognise as our community news correspondent – says family and friends are supportive of her steamy tales. Speaking from her home on Brockton Walk, Cheetham, she said: "I don’t think my writing is anything to be ashamed of. I enjoy writing erotica, which is something I’m very interested in. I love it. No one is bothered by it or shocked. When I tell people they always want to read them."

Eva – who is also working on a more sedated recipe book – started her writing career at the tender age of 11 when she had a poem printed in our sister paper the MEN.

"I got five shillings for that," said Eva. "So I wrote another one, and got another five shillings. It carried on from there really.

"But I didn’t start seriously writing until about three or four years ago."

Eva, who has seven grandchildren and one great grandson, moved to South Africa with her husband in the 1980s, where she took up a number of writing courses and started her own book-keeping and accounts business.

But a devastating car crash in 1993 left Eva permanently disabled.

She said: "We came face to face with a fully loaded railway truck. Luckily, we all got out alive but I broke my neck. If the fracture had gone a little bit lower, I would have died."

Since then, Eva has struggled with her mobility. Her husband died in 2000 and Eva returned to Manchester the year after.

Home cooking

Penning erotica is very different from her usual writing – for the past seven years she has worked as a community correspondent for the Advertiser.

She is also working on a traditional home cooking book – ‘Like Mum Used to Make’ and also writes reviews as well as proof-reading.

But it is her interest in more risque writing which has captured her liberal imagination.

"I went on this kinky website and somebody suggested I write an article for the site. I sent a story off and two months later I heard they had accepted it.

"Since last June, I’ve had five stories published in anthologies such as ‘Naughty Spanking’ and online."

All her work focus on Merrilee – including a Christmas special where she has a rendezvous with Santa

"They’re not pornographic stories but more erotica," Eva explained. "They are based on my experiences and fantasies. My online friends love reading about Merrilee."